New Working Models for Artists It is difficult to engage outside collaborators for my projects. I am sure that this is due to the fact that my work involves questioning the truisms found in new media and medicine. Collaborators from the science and technology fields are not necessarily open to engaging in research that can result in a product that is "useless" or unflattering to their own work. However, I have managed to forge a few collaborative successes with remarkable and forward thinking individuals in the technology and medical fields. Despite the fact that many artists have found individual strategies for working within the realm of science, there still remains, larger, more critical issues that need to be addressed if these successes are going to have any lasting impact. Artists are beginning to value their intellectual property as creative thinkers, yet most of us still use old methods of research, application and distribution. There are codes of ethics found in both the sciences and humanities for working collaboratively, yet very little can be found to support artists in their field. In the world of interdisciplinary collaboration, there is far more potential for "exchangeable value" to the other professionals involved than to the artists. Most artists working in collaboration remain financially marginalized while other kinds of professional projects are made stronger by interdisciplinary positioning. We need to leverage methods of working in collaboration to better sustain artists. There is both potential and illusions hiding in the mystique of interdisciplinary art collaboration that need to emerge for dissection. Jennifer
Hall is the Founder/Director of the Do While
Studio, Boston, MA.
Jennifer Hall- Ms. Hall received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A) at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1980, and her Masters of Science in Visual Studies (M.S.V.S.) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. Ms. Hall is the Founding Director of the Do While Studio, a Boston-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the fusion of art, technology, and culture. She is currently a Professor of Environmental Design at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. In both 1984 and 1985, Ms. Hall received the first and second year IBM Home Computing Award for developing gesture driven interfaces. In 1995 she received Woman of the Year from the Boston Chapter of the National Epilepsy Association for her work with Art and Epilepsy, and in 1998 was awarded the first Anne Jackson Award for Visionary Teaching in the field of Art Technology from the Massachusetts College of Art. She also received the first Rappaport Prize in 2000, the largest award for an individual artist in New England. EMAIL: jenhall@massart.edu page last modified 09/30/01 |
